What is Biodanza?

Biodanza, created by Chilean Rolando Toro in the 1960s, is called the dance of life. It is a system of music, authentic movement and deep emotion that promotes community and connection to the self, the other and the universe.

"Biodanza is a radical worldwide system that awakens our potential to live fully. It is about falling in love with life. This means deepening our love for ourselves, our connections to others and to nature, and all that is through movement and music." Rolando Toro

Biodanza consists of approximately 2000 dances. A number of dances are put together into a class, also called a “vivencia”, according to an orthodoxy developed over the past 40 years. A class may last from 40 minutes for children and for introductory classes, 75-90 minutes for a regular weekly Biodanza session, and up to five days for longer Biodanza journeys.

Some of the key effects of Biodanza:

Presence: the vivencia

“Vivencia” means the lived experience of the moment; presence. We directly experience sensations (e.g. of aliveness/vitality, pleasure, well-being), feelings (love, care, affection, joy), thoughts (pure insights), community (a connection with others) and the whole of existence (transcendence).

Differentiation, Integration, Self regulation and Growth

Biodanza stimulates the natural intelligence of individuals and groups as living organisms. Life seeks and creates balance, such as the maintenance of a constant body temperature, or the self-regulation of ecologies. At moments of growth the balance is disturbed through a process of differentiation, and then integration at a higher level. As babies we experience ourselves as indistinct from our mothers: a major moment of growth is when we start to see ourselves as separate and different. This is fundamentally necessary, but needs to be followed by integration into a larger whole. Biodanza also enables differentiation (the development of identity), and integration into ever lager whole, for instance from family through species to universe or Life itself.

Group formation

Biodanza is a group modality – there is no individual Biodanza. As the individual develops through the process of Biodanza, so does the group. The group is the container for our development, it holds us, supports us, allow us to find incredible potential within ourselves.

As a participant says, “it seems to help me personally to heal emotionally and the unconditional acceptance of the group plays a large part in this.”

Awakening to the sacredness of Life

•  Biodanza makes you feel more alive, awake, ready for life, strong and full of desire

•  Biodanza enables you to experience pleasure more deeply and freely, to enjoy life more

•  Biodanza ignites your creative instincts, heightening your trust in your ability to move, and your belief in your capacity to live the life you desire

•  Biodanza deepens your ability to make connections, to give and receive affection and care, to love

•  Biodanza continually transforms and increases your sense of yourself as part of the entire universe, an experience of wholeness and ecstasy

Biodanza is a powerful transformation process, bringing us ever more into presence. It's a shamanic art in the sense that it is a “technique for ecstasy”.

For more information,

Contact Christo van Staden, 0731483729, christo@learningdesign.co.za